The Pool
by digitalfletch
Summary: An unexpected announcement leads to Torres hitting the jackpot. Callian.


Ria Torres filed into the conference room with the rest of the Lightman Group employees. Most of the chairs were already taken so she sank into a seat near the front, next to a worried-looking Eli Loker.

He leaned towards her. "Any idea what this is about?" he whispered, his brow furrowed with concern.

Torres shrugged. "No clue." She hoped that outwardly she appeared more unflappable than Loker, but inwardly she was worried as well. The last time Lightman and Foster had called a staff meeting it was to announce that the Lightman Group was being sued.

At that moment their bosses strode into the room and stood together at the head of the long table. Torres turned her attention to them, searching for clues as to what might be going on. Foster, characteristically, was wearing a stunning dress that hugged her every curve. _Wow, she looks absolutely gorgeous,_ she thought with no small amount of envy. Of course, Foster had both the figure and the budget to pull it off, but once again Torres was struck by the radiant glow that for the past few weeks had seemed to emanate from her very core.

Lightman, on the other hand, was clad in his typical rumpled shirt and trousers, but even he looked a little different than usual. He was smiling, Torres realized with a start. _God, that's so weird. Something big's gotta be up._

"Good afternoon everyone," Foster greeted them. "We'll keep this short, but we have a little announcement to make."

She glanced at Lightman, who smoothly went on, "As you know, we've got a few rules around here, the most important of which is that we don't use our skills to pry into each others' personal lives. An' I know you all keep to that, 'cause if you didn't you wouldn't still be here."

He stopped and shot a grin at Foster, who rolled her eyes and nudged him with one shoulder to continue. Torres couldn't help noticing how closely they stood together. Not that it was anything new. Lightman always did have a blatant disregard for other people's personal space, but she never failed to be intrigued how little Foster in particular seemed to mind.

"Anyway, point is," Lightman continued, "that instead of asking you all to just ignore what's goin' on between me an' Foster, we thought it'd be good to, ya know, get it out in the open."

As he spoke – all the while glancing sidelong at his partner – Torres watched as a dazzling smile lit Foster's face. It was a smile so bright it made you want to put on sunglasses.

"And so we just wanted all of you to know," Foster said as she threaded her arm through Lightman's, "that Cal and I have been dating for a few weeks, and…well, we're now together both professionally and also personally."

Before she could even finish the sentence applause rang out, first from the back and then rapidly carrying around the room.

To Torres' amusement the warmth of the staff's response left Lightman clearly nonplussed, while judging from the expression on Foster's face she was both delighted and unexpectedly touched.

"Bout time," she heard someone behind her – she thought it was Reynolds – mutter.

At that, the 'meeting' broke up. Torres caught Loker's eye and saw the same goofy grin on his face that was probably plastered all over her own. But then it was so hard not to be happy for them. It had been obvious to her from the time she joined the firm that Lightman carried a torch for Foster. He was clearly crazy about her, which Torres kind of liked because it made him seem almost human. Or maybe it was Foster who made him seem almost human, she still wasn't sure which.

So taking the step from business partners to romantic partners seemed pretty natural for the two of them. Most of the time they acted like an old married couple anyway: bickering good-naturedly, criticizing one another's eating habits, finishing each other's sentences. And during the last couple of months, after Foster's breakup with Dr. Burns, it was obvious to anyone who spent any time around them that they were becoming closer than ever.

And now they were a couple. Officially. _No wonder Foster's been so happy these past few weeks, _Torres thought.

As for herself, she had additional reason to be pleased for them. She pushed her chair back and looked over at Loker. "You all owe me big time," she told him smugly.

_Crap!_ As soon as the words were out of her mouth she wanted to take them back. She shot a quick look over at Foster and Lightman, hoping against hope that they hadn't overheard on their way out of the room, but as she feared Foster – who had ears like a bat – had already paused just inside the doorway.

"Owe you what?" she asked curiously, her gaze flicking between Torres and Loker.

_Oh shit._ Torres turned to try and cut Loker off at the pass, but the moron was already opening his big mouth.

"A fat pot of money," Mr. Honesty-boy told Foster blithely. "We bet on when you and Lightman would finally get together."

"You and Torres made a bet about us?" Foster's voice climbed incredulously.

"Actually it's the whole office – we have a pool," Loker added helpfully. Torres wanted to strangle him.

_Oh, we are so dead._

"The whole office? You have a pool? About _us_?" Incredulity was giving way to annoyance, and Torres began to glance around for the nearest escape route.

Foster spun to look at Cal, who was standing a step behind her. "Did you know about this?"

Lightman just grinned, allowing Torres to catch a rare glimpse of the mischievous side of her boss. "Course. I keep telling ya I know about everything that goes on around here."

"He had next month," Loker put in, apparently unable to stem his verbal diarrhea.

"Next month?" Foster stared at Lightman. "You mean you actually _took part?_"

For the first time Lightman seemed to sense the oncoming danger, and made a sudden lunge through the doorway.

Foster followed right on his heels. "Cal!"

_Oh, he is so dead. But better him than me._

Torres watched them vanish down the hall and then turned on Loker. "You can be such an idiot sometimes."

Loker just shrugged, not disagreeing. "Yeah, maybe." His eyes were still focused on the now empty hallway, the slight smile touching the corners of his mouth widening into a full grin. "Still, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have missed that for anything. Even if it cost me twenty bucks."

Torres matched his grin with her own. "Yeah, it did. Pay up."

FIN


End file.
